Unearth - The March
Metal Blade
Melodeath inspired Metalcore
10 songs (47:29)
Release year: 2008
Unearth, Metal Blade
Reviewed by Khelek
Archive review

I first became familiar with this band in the mid 2000s when their music video for Zombie Autopilot was popular. I found the song to be quite powerful and guitar work very pleasing to the ear, so I checked out some of the band's work and found them to be a good albeit mostly unoriginal metalcore act that had some real talent. I had hoped the band would get better over time, but they unfortunately have remained much the same over the past 7 years. The March shows just how much the same, playing it safe with constant melodic guitar leads, downtuned bar chords, and double bass drumming. Vocalist Trevor Phipps has also not stepped it up as a vocalist and his performance here sounds painfully typical and uninspired, only occasionally throwing in some real emotion.

My Will Be Done starts off with a catchy, melodic lead, but it's nothing that hasn't been done a hundred times before and already I have my doubts about this album. The guitar work throughout this track is pretty tight, including the solos, but it just sound uninspired and emotionless to me. It reminds me in some ways of All Shall Perish's latest work, except less originality. Hail The Shrine is a repetitive take on this same idea, melodic wailing guitars setting the tone of the music and the half-growled, half-sung vocals taking over the rest. Not a very strong track. Crow Killer begins with some more interesting yet simple guitar leads. I like the energy of this song, but once again it's just not original enough to set the band apart from the metalcore masses. I like the guitar soloing as well, but I'm just a sucker for wailing, melodic guitars, which is one thing Unearth have always been pretty good at. Grave Of Opportunity starts out very catchy with another melodic, melancholy sounding guitar lead. This is one of the better tracks on the album, keeping my attention the entire time and Phipps's vocals not sounding so monotone. Cutman also has this same catchiness, the vocals being the weakest element. I have to say that the vocals on this album just do not cut it. Occasionally you can hear some passion in the voice of Trevor Phipps, but for the most part it all sounds the same. The lyrics are quite understandable, which I like, but his growling style just sounds so standard and monotone to me, and the attempts at singing are worse. The Chosen is the last really listenable song on the album, staying very upbeat with an almost happy-sounding set of riffs and the anthemic verse and chorus. Truth Or Consequence finishes the album off with yet another melodic lead and some softer riffs accompanied by the usual thick drumming.

This is another pretty typical Unearth release. While the band have not lowered the quality of their music, their songwriting stays at pretty much the same dumbed-down level throughout the entire album with a couple exceptions. If this was the band’s first album I could understand it, but it’s their fourth. At the end of the day you’re just not going to get anything different than what the band has already released, so if you’re a fan of the same melodic guitar leads and solos over and over, then by all means get this album. Otherwise there’s no real reason to waste your time.

Killing Songs :
Crow Killer, Grave Of Opportunity, Cutman
Khelek quoted 60 / 100
Other albums by Unearth that we have reviewed:
Unearth - III: In The Eyes Of Fire reviewed by Ken and quoted 65 / 100
Unearth - The Oncoming Storm reviewed by Jason and quoted 84 / 100
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